Tuesday, October 18, 2005

I finished my first Hedgie last week. It's a hand-made book the size of a pocket Moleskine with all the same features. The pages are 90# watercolor paper and the cover is some fabric I used for my husband and son's costumes. It opens flat, has a pocket in the back, a ribbon bookmark and an elastic band closure tea-dyed to compliment the cover fabric. I did a few things different than Leslie has on her .pdf: I made the cover from two pieces of cardboard with a paper strip on the spine for flexibility. The fabric glued to the cover should give the spine some strength; and I made the hedgie the same size as a moleskine, not quarter-letter size. I'm rather proud of the job I did; it's much better than the other books I've made. I look forward to making more and experimenting with papers and covers! Click on the photo to see other photos of the binding process.

Friday, October 14, 2005

1. I'm a Scorpio.2. I was born on Halloween.3. I can make darn near anything.4. I can fix darn near anything.5. I play recorder, a medieval flute-like instrument, and have gone to Early Music festivals and done demonstrations for Music Appreciation classes. One year, my friends and I played at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival.6. I also played piano.7. I have a full darkroom packed in storage waiting for a house to set up in.8. In photography class, I entered a contest and was a finalist in the Best of College Photography 1999.9. I collect dragon figurines and had some of them in Crown Center's "Tons More Things People Collect" show last summer.10. I know how to SCUBA dive and have my own gear.11. I love anything miniature; model trains, Zip zap RC cars, dragons, origami, books, doll house stuff, you name it!12. I take Middle Eastern dance classes and love tribla-style and fusion dancing.13. I live in a 2-bedroom apartment but can only use one because the other's packed with craft supplies.14. I used to own a car body shop.15. My favorite classes in High School were metal shop, foundry and sewing.16. I love animals and have had snakes, marine and fresh-water fish, dogs, cats, mice, rats, a duck, a madagascar hissing roach, a tarantula and snails.17. I also love plants and had over 200 African Violets at one time (and will again!).18. I was a free-lance photographer for the Wednesday magazine with several cover photos.19. I once worked in a haunted house.20. I'm Pagan.

There, now you know too much and I'll have to disappear from the face of the Earth! I'm supposed to tag some more people, so here goes:

I've never used studio lights for portrait photography before so Amara let me use her as a guinea pig-er-model. She's one of my dance teachers, if you couldn't guess from the costume, and needed some new photos of herself also. I learned a lot and so did she. And got some nice photos from it!

Thursday, October 13, 2005

InkTracks is Nita from New Hampshire's blog. She's a member of the Everyday Matters group and does a lot of her work in a Moleskine (!). There's been some discussion about it and it's discovered that a bit of soap on the brush helps break up the sizing on the sketchbook's pages to make it more receptive to watercolor. Nita also uses gouache in her book to good effect. Another talented artist!

Monday, October 10, 2005

The Main Street bridge over Brush creek on the Plaza in Kansas City, MO. Drawn in pencil in my trusty Moleskine yesterday from the children's section of the Kansas City Public Library, Plaza branch. It's also my entry for the Everyday Matters Challenge this week, #36, Draw in Public.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

We went to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival last weekend with some of the gals from the Maya Zahira School of Bellydance. It was a little chilly in the morning but it was perfect for wearing costumes! Rianna got all dolled up in hers and Daddy wore his (after much cajoling and threatening from me). The cub was hopeless, I just didn't bother. Mine had a dye mishap and I found about 15 other reasons not to wear it. I had pockets and my backpack and could take care of the rest of the troupe just fine and enjoyed the day immensely. Rianna jumped on the bungee thing like in St Louis but they made her go too high and she got scared. Then I found her a garland for her hair and she was happy again. Go to my Flickr site (click on the badge over there --->) to find lots more photos from the day!